On our drive to Rome, Nick asked if I knew where the Tivoli Gardens/Villa d'Este were? Or had I ever been there?.....no and no.....
As it turned out, they were located just east of the A1 not a big detour from Rome, so he pulled a "Lucky Pierre"(that's a good friend's father's definition of "a surprise change of plans") and we went to see these famous gardens. boy, was I glad we did! It was stectacular and one of our favorite stops on our Italy trip.
The Villa d'Este was built by Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, son of Alfonso d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia some where in the mid 16th century. He moved to Tivoli after being given the governorship but a princely man such as he needed a magnificent palace to surround himself with artists and men of culture. What an incredible place he created!! We were truly overwhelmed by the splendor of it all:the palace, the sculptures AND the amazing fountains.
We could imagine the Cardinal and all his humanist friends strolling about discussing the works of the classical poets. We also thought it would have been the most wonderful place to play hide and seek! The estate remained in the d'Este family until somewhere along the way it fell into the hands of the Hapsburg and then Hohenlohe families. At the time of WWI, it was in a state of disrepair and was confiscated by the Italian government. They refurbished it and seem to be doing a great job of maintaining it today-most all of the fountains were operating at full capacity.
We felt like kids in a candy store not knowing which way to go and which fountain to oh or ah at more! Our favorite was probably the Road of One Hundred Fountains shown here below.
The sound of the water rushing was overwhelming-but in an exciting way. Not only was it prevalent here, but everywhere throughout the gardens.
We also loved all the many different
spouts for the water...
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